UNS R120 Return to Reefing Build

[Mr.BobDobalina]

Hey Reefers. This isn't a traditional build thread, I guess. Tank is 40 days old and I want a journal to be able to keep track of progress so here it is.

A little back story. Last year at this time I was living and teaching in Italy with my wife and was under contract to be doing the same right now. But life is life and my father-in-law received a terminal diagnosis about a week before our school year ended. He lives alone without any friends or family left or in the area. Long story short, I am unexpectedly back in the US and living with and helping care for him. In the midst of bad news, I decided to do something good and jump back into a hobby I gave up 22 yrs ago. His father kept large freshwater tanks when he was young so he is very into it. It brings everyone some joy and this is a lonely and isolated man who lost his wife 3 yrs ago. Poor guy has been lost ever since.

Now for the tank journal. I purchased a UNS R120 and it was delivered early September. It has a roughly 95 gal DT and 24 gal sump. The 1st chamber of the sump in my setup contains the skimmer and a Santa Monica Drop 1.2, 2nd chamber has 30ish lbs of live rock, 3rd chamber is a cryptic-ish refugium with small rock/rubble and 4th is return plus probes, dosing hoses etc. Here are the details:

Lighting: 2 Maxspect Ethereal Infinite E8230s
Return - Sicce Syncra 7.0
Powerheads: 2 MP40s with Limpit guards
Skimmer: Tunze 9012 (hope to be skimmerless some day)
Apex Pro with 2 DOS (1 for WCs and 1 for dosing)
6 stage RODI

I added 100 lbs of live base rock from TBS in mid September along with 20lbs live sand and 40lbs of live Oolite. The sand ended up being too fine so I went to the special grade to build the rest of the sandbed.

On October 6th I ordered 2 dozen corals with the idea to quarantine them until the week of Thanksgiving. So the tank was not supposed to have any inhabitants other than CUC until this time. My nephew, my FIL's grandson, will be here and I thought we could all study ideal placements and place each coral together. Well, I'm an idiot and thought the little magnetic frag trays would have plenty of room for the frags because all the frags I saw at this little local joint were tiny. The ORA corals arrived 10/7 in beautiful shape. And much, much larger than I had anticipated. After a night of killing each other due to my incompetence, I ran out and bought another tank to divide the corals further while I ran carbon. It was apparent this temporary fix would not be enough so after 1 day I decided to move them to the DT on day 14 of the cycle undipped. It was right about this time I confirmed that a mantis shrimp was living in the tank, but more on that later.

The corals were immediately happier, but some have been touch and go.

On 10/16 I added another 140 lbs of live rock between the DT and sump. My aquascape is me piecing/wedging together what I can using absolutely no support or adhesive. The rock does not rest on the back wall keeping it open outside of one medium sized piece. I will probably need to stabilize the top pieces when fish are added.

TBS sends crazy rock covered in tunicates, sponges, feather dusters, spagetti worms, bivalves, macroalgae, coralline, etc. It is full of tunnels and arches and just top tier all around. I used to buy from them many moons ago and it is really impressive to see what they have become over the years. This has been the unexpected star and hooked my wife into life on the reef. She is blown away by all the different species living in there and has become a huge proponent of all things reef lol. Including the aforementioned mantis. Which I randomly caught as it was out roaming by the glass and I swooped it with a net. Now I know it was probably bullied out by the other mantis that still lives in there. Yes, I had 2 in there in addition to all the amazing hitchhikers. And the mantis are cool, but I don't want one. While inspecting the 2nd shipment of rock a 3rd mantis fell out onto the floor! Let's hope there isn't a 4th.

 

[Mr.BobDobalina]

 

[Mr.BobDobalina]

This past week I added a bunch of copepods and amphipods and began dosing phyto. Check out the 2 amphipods that decided the Red Footed Sea Cucumber hitchhiker was the perfect spot to hide out.

Everybody is mostly happy and the Long-Tentacled Goni that was white is definitely refilling all of its skeleton with neon green polyps. I lost 2 corals in the end, a Micronesian Torch and an Easter Egg Chalice. The Long-Polyped Leather is not happy. Extended some polyps for a couple of days and has since retracted again. I changed a whole lot of water over the past couple of weeks as die off from the rock and corals coupled with an incomplete cycle spiked everything and I was trying to give the coral a chance to heal without needing to outcompete algae. I've dialed it back to small daily auto changes as things have begun to stabilize.

 

[Mr.BobDobalina]

Current Stock List

Coral: all from ORA
Pom Pom Xenia
Asterospicularious
Galaxea
Blue Acan
Micronesian Lobophyllia
Grubes Gorgonian
Purple Gorgonian
Rumphella Gorgonian
Micronesian Hammer
Pearl Bubble
Microneasian Bubble
Long-Polyped Leather
Sarcophyton X 2
Yellow Purple Scroll
Yellow Scroll (Purple)
Nepthea
Sinularia Finger Leather
Fuzzy Lobo
Red Goniopora
Long-tentacled Goniopora
Candy Cane

Inverts:
Trochus Snail x 20
Cerith Snail x 22 (2 HH)
Margarita Snail x 10
Nerite Snail x 10
Nassarius Snail x 10
Scarlet hermit x 20
Emerald Crab x 2
Shaggy Leg Crab (Mythrax?) (HH)
Fuzzy Chiton
Red Footed Sea Cucumber (HH)
Limpets x ~ 10 (HH)
Purle-Spined Urchin x 2 (HH)
Smasher Mantis Shrimp - Neogonodactylus Wennerae (HH)
Various crabs I am in the process of slowly catching and banishing to the sump. Included a handful of nasty hermits that started killing snails. So those totals above are definitely less now. Not to mention gorilla crabs I've caught. The mantis really focuses on the bivalves. I will supplement with clams from the grocery if necessary.

Plans for the future include a handful more corals and some fish. I will fill out the ORA aquarium with the last of their LPS/Softy offerings. I essentially nearly killed all of their corals and they came back quickly and impressively. What more can you ask for? Plus, I love the classics and they are easy. The mantis has thrown a wrench in the fish arena as I wanted to add a pair of Biota Mandarins 1st and a pistol/goby pair 2nd. I am going to start actively trying to. Small mandarins do not sound like a great choice even with a smasher, not a spearer. The pistol is a no-go until the mantis is caught. Really want the mandarins to be 1st so they can run the joint for a month by themselves. I will be continually replenishing pods as the tank matures and massive quanity become self sustaining. I know they accept prepared food now, but I want them to be well fed while engaged in their natural hunting behavior too. I am hoping for 3 Lyretail Anthias, maybe some Assessors, 2 Pink Skunk Clowns along with a clam and an anemone eventually when the tank is ready. Limiting myself to captive bred so kind of just going to roll with what is peaceful and available. I bought the lighting so I have the option of SPS in the future, but that would be the distant future.

 

[kevgib67]

Looks great, well done!

 

[Mr.BobDobalina]

Above pics from 10/16 and 10/26. Need new pics under white light in current placement. Both bubbles are struggling, but beginning to pop new growth in spots. Aside from recently starting phyto, I have used Coral Snow and KW's LPS amino blend a few times. Reef Roids twice. Any and all advice is welcomed. Apologies for the terrible photos! I need to figure that out.